Our Time on K’gari Fraser Island & Visiting The Youth Tourism Conference
Our time on the Gold Coast was an amazing opportunity to hang out with the absolute legends of Australia’s Adventure Tourism industry. During the Youth Tourism Conference, we heard story after story of uncertainty & innovation through the pandemic - the industry coming together to support each other and come out the other side stronger & more connected than ever!
Adventure Tourism Awards & Youth Tourism Conference
Keynote speakers during the half-day Australia & New Zealand Youth Tourism Conference shared insights and inspiration for how the industry can thrive in the future, and how we can make a positive social & environmental impact through tourism.
A couple of particularly memorable speakers we were inspired by:
Hailey Brown, Founder & CEO of VacayIt, and her mission to make adventure tourism more accessible for blind & low-vision travelers.
Mike Smith - Founder & CEO of Zero Co - and his incredible story of “untrashing the planet”, transforming plastic waste from coastlines around the world into zero waste personal care and household cleaning products.
Ben also had a lot of fun sharing the ins & outs of digital marketing with the group during his keynote session. We had some great conversations with the group about the influence of AI, how its ever-growing presence might impact the future of digital, and how we can all use it to our advantage!
That evening, we were lucky enough to join the party at the Adventure Tourism Awards - celebrating with the incredible humans & their businesses now absolutely thriving post-pandemic, against all odds!
K’gari
Directly translated, means “paradise” - the perfect way to describe this magical island, which we’ve been dreaming of visiting since we started working with Hana & Mark of Drop Bear’s K’gari Adventures almost 2 years ago!
Our weekend kicked off with a 4WD journey along the beach highway (on an island 100% made of sand, the beach is literally the highway 😍), and a couple of dingoes trotted over to greet us!
We were on tour with the crew from The Local Eye Travel Show - who are working with Hana & Mark to encourage more eco-tourists from around the world to come and experience K’gari in all its wonder.
We visited a few of the best spots on the island (but really only scratched the surface in the time we had), including:
Eli Creek - a natural spring that pours up to four million litres of clear, fresh water into the ocean every hour.
Lake Mckenzie (Boorangoora) - a 150 hectare, 8 metre deep body of clear blue, entirely fed by rainwater.
Sunset on the West Coast - which we had completely to ourselves (most of the tourism is based on the East Coast).
Wanggoolba Creek in the Rain Forest - with water so clear you’d be forgiven for thinking it was completely dry.
The Champagne Pools - formerly known as “The Aquarium” - a protected marine reserve just off the beach, perfect for snorkeling!
The Maheno Shipwreck - which washed up on 75 mile beach on the island’s east coast, after being struck by an off-season cyclone.
Amongst all this adventuring, the most special part for us was spending time connecting with Hana, Mark & their team of volunteers at The Eco Retreat (the beautiful accommodation every guest gets to experience during the 3-day tour Drop Bear’s K’gari Adventures offers).
Spending a couple of days seeing K’gari through their eyes is something we’ll never forget, and we feel so very lucky to have had this opportunity!
We’re really excited to continue growing the visibility of Drop Bear’s K’gari Adventures through our SEO work, increasing the ripple of impact of their eco-tourism on people & planet (AND we can’t wait to come back again soon)!!
